PG&E spared criminal charges in deadly 2017 California wildfires

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An investigation into fierce wildfires that swept Northern California’s wine country in 2017, killing 46 people, found no basis to criminally charge PG&E, the utility whose power lines helped spark the conflagration, prosecutors said on Monday. The decision, which leaves the company potentially liable for billions of dollars in civil damages, capped a review by the district attorneys of Sonoma, Napa, Humboldt and Lake Counties, as well as the state attorney general’s office, according to a joint statement.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection concluded last June that a dozen of the wind-driven blazes were ignited by power lines owned by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company and cited code violations in eight of those fires. The cases were referred to prosecutors to determine whether PG&E had behaved with criminal negligence in failing to remove dead and dying trees around its equipment. Ultimately, prosecutors found insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt “that PG&E acted with a reckless disregard for human life in causing the fires, the standard necessary to sustain criminal charges,” they said.

The fires, more than 20 in all, erupted the night of Oct. 8, 2017, and raced across several counties north of San Francisco, collectively dubbed the North Bay Fires. The flames killed 46 people, scorched at least 245,000 acres (99,148 hectares) and incinerated 8,900 structures, including entire subdivisions in the Sonoma County town of Santa Rosa. An estimated 100,000 people were placed under evacuation orders and the region’s renowned wine-making industry was thrown into turmoil.

The San Francisco-based utility filed for bankruptcy in January, citing potential civil liabilities in excess of $30 billion from the North Bay fires and a separate 2018 blaze that killed 85 people. Commenting on Monday’s decision to spare the company from criminal prosecution, PG&E issued a statement saying the safety of its 16 million customers and 24,000 employees '“remains our highest priority.“We continue to focus on helping our customers and communities in these counties continue to recover and rebuild,” the company said.'”

Prosecutors, however, stopped short of exonerating PG&E altogether. “Proving PG&E failed in their duty to remove trees was made particularly difficult in this context as the locations where the fires occurred, and where physical evidence could have been located, were decimated by the fires,” they said in their statement. The company remains on criminal probation from its conviction for a deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion near San Francisco and is still a defendant in numerous private civil cases stemming from wildfires.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-fire-pg-e/pge-spared-criminal-charges-in-deadly-2017-california-wildfires-idUSKBN1QU08W

>>5653320

No doubt a side deal with trial attorney's the victims will be lucky to see $100.00, for all of their trouble.

Bayer Roundup cancer trial goes to jury after closing arguments

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A trial in which a California man alleged his use of Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused his cancer went to a federal U.S. jury after lawyers for both sides delivered their closing arguments on Tuesday. The closely-watched case brought by plaintiff Edward Hardeman is only the second of some 11,200 Roundup lawsuits to go to trial in the United States. Another California man was awarded $289 million in August after a state court jury in August found Roundup caused his cancer, sending Bayer shares plunging. Hardeman’s case has proceeded differently from the earlier trial, with an initial phase exclusively focused on scientific facts while omitting evidence of alleged corporate misconduct by company representatives.

Following the first phase, the six jurors in San Francisco federal court were asked by U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria to decide whether Roundup was a “substantial factor” in causing Hardeman’s cancer. If the jury finds Roundup to have caused Hardeman’s cancer, the trial will proceed into a second stage, where his lawyers can present evidence allegedly showing the company’s efforts to influence scientists, regulators and the public about the safety of its products. Hardeman’s lawyer, Aimee Wagstaff, during her closing arguments on Tuesday said Hardeman had “extreme” exposure to Roundup, spraying the chemical more than 300 times over 26 years. “The dose makes the poison. The more you use, the higher the risk,” Wagstaff said. She urged jurors to consider all studies, including of rodents and cells, which she said showed an elevated cancer risk.

Bayer, which acquired Monsanto for $63 billion, denies allegations that Roundup, or glyphosate, cause cancer. It says decades of studies and regulatory evaluations, primarily of real-world human exposure data, have shown the weed killer to be safe for human use regardless of exposure levels. Wagstaff criticized the epidemiological studies as flawed.

Brian Stekloff, a lawyer for Bayer, in his closing statement said the cause of Hardeman’s cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma generally, was not known. “No one can tell you the cause,” Stekloff said, adding that Hardeman had some risk factors, such as old age and a history of hepatitis. Chhabria decided in January to split Hardeman’s case into two phases. He called evidence of alleged corporate misconduct “a distraction” from the scientific question of whether glyphosate causes cancer. Hardeman’s trial is a test case for some 760 cases nationwide consolidated before Chhabria in federal court. Evidence of corporate misconduct was seen as playing a key role in the earlier state court case. The verdict in that case was later reduced to $78 million and is on appeal. Plaintiff lawyers called Chhabria’s decision to exclude similar evidence from the first phase of Hardeman’s case “unfair,” saying their scientific evidence was inextricably linked to Monsanto’s alleged attempts to manipulate, misrepresent and intimidate scientists.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-glyphosate-lawsuit/bayer-roundup-cancer-trial-goes-to-jury-after-closing-arguments-idUSKBN1QT31G?il=0

Fiji suspends Boeing 737 MAX flights

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Fiji Airways and the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji on Wednesday temporarily grounded the carrier’s two Boeing Co 737 MAX planes, following two fatal crashes involving the aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The plane tracking website Flightradar24 says the aircraft are the 737 MAX 8 model.

The airline and the authority said in a joint statement that they had confidence in the model’s airworthiness but would suspend flights out of deference to public concern and regulatory action around the world. Fiji Airways will use its Boeing 737 and Airbus SE A330 aircraft on routes instead of the 737 MAX planes. Britain, Germany, India and France and Australia are among a wave of countries that have grounded the plane in recent days.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airplane-fiji/fiji-suspends-boeing-737-max-flights-idUSKBN1QU034?il=0

Twitter executives could face 7-year jail, warns government

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